The Malik Report

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson addressed his team’s significant roster turnover at a season-ticket holder event on Tuesday, issuing an honest answer regarding the team’s need to build chemistry and combinations thanks to the number of players they’ve seen exit the organization:

Only five skaters who suited up for Watson last season will be coming back: forwards T.J. Hensick, Shane Berschbach, and Abbott Girduckis, and defensemen Brenden Kotyk and Connor Schmidt. Hensick and Berschbach were the team’s leading scorers.

Last season, Watson brought back only six players from the 2017-18 team that won a Central Division title.

“We’re doing the exact same thing this year with different names,” Watson said. “The quality and character of the people that we’re adding with their skill set … it will be a very dangerous lineup.”

Nine of the 15 players on the roster have appeared in 1,267 total games in the higher-level American Hockey League. Forwards Hensick (653), Zack Phillips (260), Josh Winquist (137), Branden Troock (119), and defensemen Blake Hillman (54), and Brandon Anselmini (27) have all spent time in the AHL.

“We’ll have a little more experience this year,” Watson said. “With the players we’ve signed, we will be faster with a little more skill up front. I think we will be able to defend better on the back end. I think that’s extremely important. It’s something we learned in the finals.”

Continued; as Watson suggests, roster turnover is the nature of the beast in the ECHL.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner reviews Filip Zadina’s 2018-19 campaign “By the Numbers” this morning, and Regner’s analysis includes an intriguing quote from Red Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff, who suggests that Zadina needed to spend his summer working on his skating:

Quotable: “He’s good in tight spaces, we want to create a little more explosiveness and improve his first three steps a little bit. The NHL game, there’s so much backside pressure, we just need to help him separate a little bit more and create some open ice.” – Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development/assistant director of player personnel.

Continued, and Horcoff has a point. Zadina’s skating is not a detriment by any means, but he’s still working on building the kind of strength necessary to use his legs to his advantage in battles for the puck.

MLive’s Ansar Khan issues a 2019-2020 season outlook for Jacob de la Rose this morning. As Khan notes, de la Rose doesn’t really add anything to the mix in terms of offensive abilities, but I felt that he was a useful shut-down forward last season:

2019-20 outlook: The Red Wings took a flier on the 34th overall pick from 2013 who didn’t pan out in Montreal, hoping he was a late bloomer who could benefit from a change of scenery.

He is mobile, has good size and reach and his defensive instincts make him better suited for a checking role and penalty kill duty. He hasn’t shown any offensive proficiency during his brief NHL career, so he figures to be competing with the likes of Christoffer Ehn and Ryan Kuffner for a spot on the fourth line, likely on the wing.

De la Rose was a healthy scratch only once from the time he made his Red Wings debut until late March, when he was shut down due to a heart issue. He had surgery in early April and was scheduled to be on blood thinners for three months but was given clearance to resume training. He was expected to be fully recovered and ready to go at the start of training camp.

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji spoke with St. Louis Blues color commentator Darren Pang regarding the fact that his close friend, one Steve Yzerman, has ascended to the GM’s chair in Detroit:

“Obviously I’m thrilled for Steve to be back here,” Pang said. “Steve’s just a special guy. He does things the right way, he’s an honorable friend, he’s loyal. I went up there to his offices to see him and spent a half a day. I saw him in the Red Wings golf shirt and I just looked at him and I said, ‘Boy, does that look good.’ And it does look good. He’s a special guy and I’m lucky to have him as a friend for a long time.”

Pang said he was not surprised to see Yzerman, the Hall of Fame player, decide to stay in hockey in a front office role after his retirement.

“Once he started running Team Canada, started being under Kenny Holland, yes, I saw it,” Pang said. “There was a determination typical of Steve that just never went away. He’s a worker, he’s a grinder, every day he’s thinking about another way of making the team better and what player and Hot Stoving and talking about this player, that player, this coach, that coach, this assistant manager. He thinks about it, besides that and me and him golfing, those are the things we talk about all the time.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Max Bultman hazards an educated guess as to why the Red Wings made significant changes to their amateur scouting staff, and Bultman discusses the team’s priorities under Kris Draper’s regime:

Two months later, as the final days before the start of prospect camp drift away, there is some clarity on the image in which Yzerman is building his front office. The team has updated its hockey operations roster to reflect what ended up being a healthy amount of turnover. Some came from within, namely Kris Draper, previously a special assistant to the general manager, being promoted to the director of amateur scouting. And some came from outside, including the hirings of Ryan Rezmierski and Jesse Wallin, from Nashville and St. Louis, respectively, as chief amateur scouts. The hiring of Mike Barwis as director of sports science and human performance added some additional big-name flair as well.

It’s easy, of course, to get lost in the sea of new names, but make no mistake: Many of the additions made public last week will play substantial roles in determining the success of Yzerman’s tenure as Red Wings general manager. And for a team that has signaled a desire to build through the draft, that all starts with the amateur scouting department.

Continued (paywall)

MLive’s Ansar Khan issues a 2019-2020 season outlook for Justin Abdelkader this morning, and Khan believes that the Red Wings might part ways with #8 if he is unable to salvage his game:

Abdelkader is most effective when he’s creating havoc in the hard areas of the ice, in the corners and in front of the net, playing physical without taking bad penalties, creating space for skilled players and contributing some offense.

If Abdelkader continues to struggle and younger players are ready to step into the lineup, it’s not out of the question he could be waived (he would clear) and assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins (only $1.075 million of his salary would come off the cap).

Another poor season could prompt the Red Wings to buy out Abdelkader of the final three years of his contract in the off-season. It would cost a total of $6.3 million over six years ($1.8M, $2.3M, $2.3M, $1.05M, $1.05M and $1.05M against the cap annually through 2025-26).

Continued; I don’t believe that Abdelkader would be bought out if he has another rough campaign, but it wouldn’t be totally surprising. It sounds like Abdelkader knows his time in Detroit will be short if he doesn’t step up, and that’s a good thing.

Danny DeKeyser appears on two broadcasts today, following up his 97.1 the Ticket chat with an appearance on Arthur J. Regner’s “Red and White Authority”:

Danny DeKeyser joins us on the podcast to discuss the #RedWings blueline, Steve Yzerman’s return, the tough Atlantic Division and becoming a college graduate.

?️Listen/Subscribe: https://t.co/uFNkBWITcW pic.twitter.com/5RiVE00E9G— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 26, 2019

Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser spoke with 97.1 the Ticket’s Jamie and Stoney this morning, discussing the Red Wings’ season to come and DeKeyser earning his college degree at Western Michigan University this summer:

The Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner spoke with Joe Hicketts during his appearance at the Grand Rapids Griffins’ youth hockey camp today, and while Hicketts knows that the Red Wings’ blueline has something of a personnel jam, Hicketts still believes that he can make the Wings’ roster:

“I don’t think it’s a secret that some of our guys are getting a little bit older,” said Hicketts, 23. “You look at the good veterans guys – as much as Trevor Daley is an awesome dude to be around, he’s not getting any younger. With age comes opportunity for some of the younger guys. The (veterans have) earned that right to that job and have proven themselves, but if there are injuries, it’s up to me to put my foot in the door and hold it open.”

Last year, Hicketts had 27 points (3-24-27) in 64 games with the Griffins, leading all team defensemen in scoring and assists along with a plus-two rating and 67 penalty minutes. He appeared in 11 games with the Red Wings in two stints without a point and averaged 18:35 of ice time.

If he does end up back in Grand Rapids, Hicketts would embrace a different role as a veteran leader.

“I showed that I can be responsible defensively in Grand Rapids and they’ve entrusted me to be in a role like what (Brian) Lashoff or (Dylan) McIlrath have done with a (Vila) Saarijarvi or (Dennis) Cholowski. And not only protect them defensively but help to add to their game offensively as well.

“This year, I feel like I’m in great shape. I never felt this good in early August.”

Continued

Expressen’s Niklas A. Svensson spoke with former Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg about purchasing a trotting horse as a post-career hobby, and eventually Svensson and Zetterberg get down to chatting about Zetterberg’s post-career life.

What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

Continue reading Roughly translated: Henrik Zetterberg ‘trots’ about investing in a horse, living in Sweden